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Donald Trump's tariffs will cost Ford $1B, CEO Jim Hackett says

Detroit Free Press Staff
Published 7:45 a.m. ET Sept. 27, 2018

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The American auto company said Tuesday it will transfer production of the next Ford Focus model to China.
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Jim Hackett, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, speaks during their press preview at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2018. (Photo: JEWEL SAMAD, AFP/Getty Images)

Ford CEO Jim Hackett on Wednesday told Bloomberg Television that his company faces $1 billion in lost profits from President Donald Trump's tariffs.

“The metals tariffs took about $1 billion in profit from us — and the irony is we source most of that in the U.S. today anyways,” Hackett said in the interview. “If it goes on longer, there will be more damage.”

A Ford spokesman told the Free Press that Hackett was referencing Ford internal forecasts of an increase of about $1 billion in steel and other metal costs in 2018 and 2019 due to tariffs.

Hackett described business as stalled by the uncertainty that Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum from China and Canada, which have led to a range of retaliatory tariffs.

At the end of August, Ford cited Trump's tariffs on cars from China in cancelling plans to import to the United States the Focus Active SUV, meant to take the place of the Focus car as Ford shifts production to pickups and SUVs.

That led Trump to crow that Ford would build the car in the United States and a correction from Ford that it could not make money that way.